Death, Death, Death for All
by gimmemango
Summary: Ed is a guy with many secrets to keep for his family. When his brother Al is chosen for the Hunger Games, he volunteers to keep everyone from finding out that Al has no real body. But with the stress and heat of the arena, will he be able to keep all the secrets or burst like a bubble? Read to find out! Rated T for mild language and violence.
1. District 3's Heated Reaping

Edward Elric hummed to himself as he walked out of the house.

"Remember that the reaping is at twelve!" his mother called to him.

"Ohhkay. Look, Mom. If we could speak pictures, there would have been a poop next to that okay.' I'm fine. I know."

"Yes, dear."

As Ed strolled through the winding streets of District 3, he continued humming to himself. So today was the reaping. So what? The only worry he had was for Al. What if he got chosen?

Actually, Ed didn't care. How would he get chosen? He was 16, so his name went into the pool 5 times. 5 plus 3 for tesserae. 8 times.

8 out of, what? A million?

Either way, it wasn't possible.

The only thing that he was worried about was Al. This was the first year that Al's name would go into the giant glass bowl, and the stress might be hard.

But any other way, it didn't matter.

So he went to the market to buy strawberries, milk, and flour, for tarts during the after- celebration.

Life was good.

Or at least legitimate.

The bustle of the marketplace woke Ed from his thoughts.

_Whutever_, he said to himself, as he entered the market square. He spotted a vendor selling fruits and walked over. No, not this one. The strawberries were too mushy. A few stalls over there was another fruit vendor. That one had good strawberries.

_Okay_, he thought. Moving on to milk. Milk was hard. The tricksters here at District 3 removed the labels from the bottles and you had to sniff them before you bought them. Luckily he was able to find a few good bottles easily.

Flour next. Flour was sold at almost every other stall, and very easy to find. You just had to check the sacks to make sure that there weren't any bugs in them. So, again, they were easy to find.

He returned home with the goods and dropped them off with his mother. It was 11:25, so he should get ready for the reaping soon. He went into the bathroom and started to unchange to take a shower.

His metal arm glimmered in the light.

He sighed. It was the result of many sins, and hard work wasted on nothing.

He could never get it back.

He showered and changed into nicer clothing, and combed down his long (and rather annoying) hair. Then he grabbed Al, called his mother along, and they headed for the town square.

OOOOOOO

District 3's representative, Bradley, stood up on the stage in the town square and launched into an explanation of the Hunger Games and how they began. Then when he finished, he breezed over to the two bowls which held the many slips of paper of which the District's 12-18 year-olds' names.

"Of course, our men will go first." He reached into the bowl, swirling his hand up and down, side to side, and picked a slip of paper out of the bowl.

He dramatically took forever to unfold it, and through the whole process, even though he had assured himself he wouldn't get picked, Ed was tense and worried.

Either way, in the end, he wasn't the one picked.

Al was.

" Alphonse Elric!" Bradley announced.

_No._

_No_, Ed thought, _this cannot be happening._

Al's name went in the bowl _once._

One out of a million. It was too horrible to be true.

Al slowly took one step forward, and another. And another. Until he was walking to the stage and got up on the stage.

"Well," Bradley joked," you might want to get out of that armor to go into the arena."

But he couldn't.

"I- I volunteer!" Ed called. He couldn't let anyone find out his brother's secret. "Please..." He added.

Bradley's eyes widened, and he smiled. "What a lovely turn of events! Please, come up, young man. Introduce yourself."

Ed went up. " My name's Edward. Edward Elric. I'm Al's older brother." He pursed his lips.

Bradley laughed. "Great, then! An act of brotherly affection! Right?"

Ed breathed out. "Yup," he replied.

"Good news, good news!" Bradley said, " Why don't we move into the ladies now?"

Excited enough for that day, Bradley snatched a slip of paper from the top of the next bowl. "Winry Rockbell!" he said.

An energetic- looking girl bounced up on stage, holding a wrench. Despite her bubbly appearance, she looked like she wanted to conk the hell out of someone's head. Ed hoped that "someone" wasn't him.

They were led into rooms, where only family and close friends could go in.

_This morning the only worry I had was mushy strawberries_, Ed thought, _and now this._

_Tsk._ Life never worked out the way you wanted it to.

But he couldn't risk anyone finding out Al's secret. The only people who knew were him, Al, and their mother.

Their mother. Fake mother, actually. Their regular mother died from a sickness.

But the fake could come in? There she was, in all her glory, standing at the doorway. She strode over to him, all smiles. But when she reached him, she leaned down and whispered forcefully, " Why'd you volunteer? You know that I won't have anyone to help tend to everything now. Alphonse doesn't do anything."

He stared up at her. He wanted to scream, _Shut up! After all that Al and I have been through, the least you could do for us is to provide a loving home! _But he couldn't show attitude, so he was just reduced to giving her an evil stare, packing all his loathing into it.

She sighed. "Look, Alphonse is going to be coming in after me. I'd better go."

She walked out the door and Al came in. He was clutching something in his metal fists.

"Big brother, they'll let you take one item into the arena. I want you to have this." He opened his fist, and in the palm of his hand, was a piece of chalk.

Al leaned in. "It's for alchemy when your arm is, you know. Broken."

"All right. Thanks, Al."

Al left Ed clutching the piece of chalk in his hand.

_I'm going to win this death battle for you, Al. Just for you. And when I come home as the victor, you'll join me in the celebration._

It was then that Mrs. Curtis entered.

Izumi Curtis, District 3's mentor.

**A/N -**

**Hope you like it!**

**And... **

**DICLAIMER!THOUGH FMA AND THE HUNGER GAMES DO NOT BELONG TO ME(they belong to Hiromu Arakawa and Suzanne Collins) I AM HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO USE THEM IN MY WRITING!**

**TAHNKS FOR READING, ALL! LEAVE SOME POSITIVE REVIEWS(PLEASE?)!**

**Also, just to let you know, the next chapter I will make way longer.**

**-Niku- san**


	2. On the Bullet Train

When Ed and Al were young their mother died of sickness. Their father had left them earlier, and they had no one to take care of them.

Overcome with grief, they attempted to resurrect her, using alchemy.

But the only thing they managed to create was a monster, with Ed loosing an arm and leg, and Al losing his body.

They escaped to District 3, where a kind man and his wife took them in as their own.

The man died and his wife went into an eternal pit of misery, taking it out on the people around her.

But Ed and Al could not leave. How could they? This was the woman that raised and fed them, dipping into her meager supply of money to maintain and get Ed's expensive automail.

Until that day, when Al was chosen at the reaping and Ed decided to step up.

As Ed gazed out the window of the bullet train, he sighed. Just a few hours. In a few hours he had gone from his comfy home to this.

Granted, this was probably more comfy than his home, but...

But. After he entered the arena, he would never be able to say words like thatbagain. Heck, he wouldn't even be able to say anything!

He tried to think of what he would even be doing in the arena. Clawing and scrabbling his way up a mountain as a vicious pack of Careers aimed and threw knives at him. Trying to run as people twice his size chased him. His automail arm falling off...his mechanic would kill him.

And Winry, the other girl from District 3. She seemed familiar...but how? Ed imagined how he seemed to already have met her...

A flash of blond hair?

A tall, petite girl turning a corner in the marketplace?

Or...

His mechanic! She was his apprentice! He had seen her before, tinkering away at a pile of metal scraps...

So she was a mechanic. And he had automail. A smile crept up his lips. Eh heh. Heh.

He was lost in his thoughts when Mrs. Curtis busted open the door. Literally busted the door. It blasted inward, detaching from the hinges as she kicked it.

Ed was kind of majorly scared of her because of her "talk" with him while they were still in District 3. He still hurt all over from "quick conditioning." It would place him in a strength level, based off his ability to fight, she had explained, before lashing out at him.

But he was grateful for the practice. He would kind of need that stuff for the arena.

Mrs. Curtis was well-built, not too buff, not too weak. She was pretty tall And good with any weapon. She was one of the district's hunters before she went into the Games, but she sometimes still jumped the fence and went to chop off a deer's head or something. A lot of the times she could be see around town dropping off food at the soup kitchen or donating money.

She had a cold, but nevertheless, soft heart.

"Dinnertime," she announced, folding her arms over her chest, "We're getting together to discuss strategy during the Games."

Ed reluctantly got up and walked with her towards the dining room. He looked down at his feet, but when they had almost reached the room, he said,"Mrs. Curtis!"

"What?" She replied gruffly, turning to look at him.

"Why are you actually making, a kind of, an effort?"

A slight hint of a smile appeared on her face."So you noticed. You're a smart one, aren't you? Why am I making an effort? I think you two actually might have a chance of winning."

It was true. District 3 was on a losing streak, just not as bad as other districts, like 12. But they hadn't had a victor since Izumi, 10 years ago. Perhaps she had seen something in them. But what?

"And please, call me Izumi."

The dinner was large, lavish, and rich, like all Capitol food. Ed ate a lot, but not so much that he would regret it later. During the meal, Izumi drilled them on what do do, and traps that could be set for them. Then she made them demonstrate what they could do.

Winry dug in her pockets for a while, and came out with a metal contraption that she had been working on earlier. She set it on the table, and pulled out a remote control. She pressed a. Utt on and it turned and shot needles dripping with poison towards the wall. She pressed another and a knife withdrew from its body and began slashing the table beneath it. Working the controls, she led it off the table and displayed a number of hidden blades and weapons.

"Good." Izumi nodded. "And Edward?"

Ed clapped his hands together, placed them on the floor, and transmuted a sword with an elaborately carved hilt. From a plate on the table he picked up a full turkey, tossed it in the air, and sliced it several times at different angles. Then he turned the sword into many small throwing knives and threw them at the pieces of meat, using them to pin it against the train walls. To follow that up, he transmuted a few mini-axes and threw them against the wall as well. When he finished, he walked over to the wall, and transmuted everything off, leaving a picture of an arrow piercing a shield made out of the many scratches he had caused the wall.

Izumi stood, dumbstruck. After a few seconds(a lot for her), she dismissed them both. "You may go now."

As she figured, Winry left first, with her head down and in a hurry, but Ed walked over to the wall to clean up his mess. He clapped his hands together and placed them on the wall, transmuting most of the scratches off.

Izumi sighed. "Edward, you've seen the Truth, haven't you?"

Ed's head snapped back to look at her."How do you know about it?"

Izumi sighed again. She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her temple. After a few seconds(again, a long time for her), she clapped her hands together, placed them on the wooden table, and transmuted a few wooden spikes which she threw along the length of the wall, as if to take out her anger on it.

"So you've been there too?" Ed asked, surprised.

"They took your arm or leg from you, didn't they? And you gave them the other for Alphonse, right?"

Ed must have made his surprise too obvious, because she said,"I was at the reaping, you know. I saw his current body."

"Y-yeah..."

"Don't let anyone know about your alchemy, until the arena and when you're in for private sessions."

Ed nodded, and headed out the door.

"Edward...I'm sorry. I know that someday you and Alphonse will get your original bodies back."

"Thanks," he said as he headed out,"and call me Ed."

He didn't know, but he could feel it- Izumi was smiling.

OCOCOCOCCOCOCOCCOCCO

"Ow, that hurts! Wait, more wax? I don't want it though!" Despite Ed's groaning and complaining, he complied while his stylists scrubbed him clean and waxed all his hair out.

When they were done, he got up to look at himself in the mirror. "My skin feels like rubber." he commented.

"But it glows like rubber too!" his stylists exclaimed. It was true. His skin was glowing like some sort of light, and even the weird hospital gown on him looked good.

"Ugh, I'm a hospital gown model now." Ed felt like he had been rocketing between different positions over the last few days. It was exhausting.

A/N-

Sup, all!

How do yeh likes the story so far?

I need some help, though!

If you review, give me some ideas for District 3's costume for the parade.

Oh yeah, and-

Review or I'll feed you to the rabid potatoes I dream of at night.


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